Frederick Douglass writes in one of his personal histories, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, about listening to the singing of the enslaved: They would sometimes sing the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous tone, and the most rapturous sentiment in the most pathetic tone…. Especially would they do this when leaving home. They would then sing most exultingly the following words:— “I am going away to the Great House Farm! O, yea! O, yea! O!”
